Israeli Citizen Was Aboard Germanwings Flight That Crashed in French Alps
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An Israeli citizen was aboard the Germanwings flight 4U 9525 that crashed in the French Alps, Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed.
Eyal Baum, 40, a businessman living in Germany who was flying home from Barcelona, was among the 144 passengers killed on Tuesday morning in the crash of the Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa’s budget airline, according to the Jerusalem Post. Six crew members also died.
Other Israeli media said Baum lives in Barcelona and was traveling to Dusseldorf, Germany, for business.
The Foreign Ministry said his family, of Hod Hasharon in central Israel, had been notified. The family reportedly had contacted the ministry earlier in the day when reports of the crash were made public, knowing that Baum had a ticket for the flight.
A black box from the plane has been found. Recovering the remains reportedly will take several days because of the remote area’s difficult landscape. It is not believed that the crash was terror related.
Sixteen German high school students and two of their teachers returning from a weeklong trip to Spain, as well as two German opera singers, were among the passengers killed in the crash.
The plane lost altitude for eight minutes before crashing; it did not issue a distress call.
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